I wrote a little about Joe Biden’s not-very-busy day on Monday. He had the Super Bowl winners, the Kansas City Chiefs to the White House, so of course he spoke about his own “football career” with typical Biden embellishment. He also managed to shake hands with the air again before shaking hands with real people and had to ask, “What am I doing?” at one point to know what he was supposed to do next.
The only other “work” he had on the day besides the Presidential Daily Briefing was a meeting with the prime minister of Denmark, Mette Fredriksen. They each gave very brief perfunctory remarks for the media photo op about the alliance between the two countries. They also said a few words about Ukraine and climate change. That’s normally the type of thing you do off the cuff, but of course, Joe was being Joe and he needed notes to even get through that, as Fredriksen looked on. She didn’t need notes for such short remarks.
Reporters tried to ask questions at the end of the photo op. However, the White House prevented them and then tried to get them out of the room. Biden smirked and avoided answering any of the questions. One reporter was particularly persistent and kept trying to ask what he thought about “Danish leadership in the world.” Biden just laughed at her.
Biden has laughed at and treated the press badly in the past. He did it when he met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and he smirked and laughed at them when they wanted to ask about Title 42 in May. In October, shortly before the election, he mocked reporters, mimicking them talking, and laughing as his staff tossed them out of the room.
Bloomberg White House correspondent Nancy Cook called out that incident in October.
“The Biden WH seems *particularly intent* on the press not asking any [questions] of POTUS 14 days out from the midterms, w/WH aides screaming in the faces of reporters who try to ask Biden q’s following each event today,” Cook tweeted.
He’s also had multiple other incidents, just in the past month, when he ducked reporters on May 11 who wanted to ask about Title 42 and had them kept far back behind a rope so they couldn’t question him. Then on May 15 when they finally got a question in on the border, he got snotty with them and told them it was going “much better than you all expected.” Then, on May 20, he told a reporter in Japan to “shush up.” On May 29, he mocked reporters saying, “You guys realize you’re not in the real world.”
Yet as we reported, the White House said in May they wanted to revise the rules as to which reporters can be at press briefings if reporters don’t act “in a professional manner.” Some like Today News Africa reporter Simon Ameba seemed to think that was an effort to kick out the people who asked him tough questions. As we noted, it also seems to discriminate against independent reporters.
Ateba told Fox News Digital, “I think it may be used to kick out unfriendly and tough reporters. The rule will be used against people like me who have been trying hard to ask questions. It’s simply a threat against the First Amendment.”
Just one more effort as we go into 2024 to cut off people who might put some pressure on Biden. But also, what nerve. He’s the one treating the press like dirt, mocking them, and laughing at them. Yet the White House Correspondents Association doesn’t hold him to account.
